In the latest blog with brand ambassador Coral Herbert, she tells us about the latest developments at home and the highs and lows of competition.
I’ve been super-busy since my last blog! The most exciting news has to be that we’ve recently extended our arena at home.
With the riding school, it’s rare that Mum and I finish teaching before 7.30pm, there will be no need for the liveries to wait until we’ve finished lessons. I will be able to keep my horses jumping to a better standard through the winter months on the bigger space too. I’m so pleased with it!
I’ve still been training really hard and have continued with my weekly lessons. Saph and I have done a couple of GO BE events. I’ve used them as an opportunity to train under pressure.
At Isleham he finished second and at Little Downham he went double clear to come third (although we were a little too speedy XC!) It’s been a mission to have him feeling more relaxed, and together we’re slowly waving goodbye to our anxieties!
My events with Frank have been a little frustrating. At Shelford, he did a nice test, but I made a mistake in the dressage, and we had one unlucky pole in the showjumping – this was the first time Frank has ever had a pole down at a competition with me. This put us into fifth position going forward to the XC.
Unfortunately, we were eliminated at the ditch early on in the course and typically he then leapt over after the third time of stepping back away from it. I took him back into the XC warm up and he jumped fine.
At Isleham, he rode another nice dressage test for 30, and jumped an easy clear in the showjumping to put us into first place! Again, he set off well XC until a palisade with water behind, which again he refused to go anywhere near, and we were eliminated. The exact same fence that he didn’t like at Isleham last year.
I’m hoping he just needs some more confidence and milage XC as he consistently produces good results in the dressage and showjumping – so I will continue to persevere with him.
We’ve also made another all-weather turnout on the side of the pony block. I call it “Saph’s garden” but really, he uses it as a way of taking himself to his paddock. Actually, when I tried to turn him out in his garden, he jumped over the gate which stands around 1m20 plus, to get to his grass! Event horses hey!
It will probably be used more as a garden for the ponies. We had our riding school inspection recently. We were awarded a 5* rating which is the highest rating we could achieve. We are both delighted and relieved about that. They seem to come around so quickly!
You would be surprised how much paperwork there is to do for it! I’d bathed all the ponies up and they were all sparkling and ready, looking so smart. Only for three of them to lie down right before the vetting inspection. They were covered in shavings, I was mortified!
Look forward to blogging again soon,
Coral x
Coral feeds Fibre-Beet to her event horses. Find out more about Fibre-Beet here.
